


Luigi’s Mansion 3: After Credits

by TheTalkingRooster



Category: Luigi's Mansion (Video Games)
Genre: Basically What Happens After the Game, Construction Doesn’t Go As Planned, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23105497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTalkingRooster/pseuds/TheTalkingRooster
Summary: After the events of Luigi's Mansion 3, things have settled down a bit, though, the mansion is still in pieces. While taking a break, Luigi begins to wonder about the Boss Ghosts' motivations for attacking him. While the others were controlled, why did they attack him? Well, now that everything’s calmed down, he might at well ask...Of course, things never go as planned.
Comments: 22
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

If Luigi had a nickel for every time he had to fight a giant angry Boo, he would technically only have fifteen cents...Or twenty. Did Boolossus count? Sure, they was just a bunch of normal Boos squished together but they were still, well, colossus. 

Anyway, he would have fifteen to twenty cents and that was fifteen to twenty cents too much. But while Luigi, Mario, and Peach were facing off against King Boo on top of the Last Resort, another conversation was happening simultaneously. Although he hadn’t revealed his trump card yet, King Boo was levitating what was supposed to be a very secure lab in the air. It actually was quite secure but E.Gadd hadn’t really accounted for the foundation of the place. He knew he should’ve invested in those ground spikes. Though, in all honesty, they probably wouldn’t have helped in this situation. While the living residents of the lab were panicking as they floated hundreds of feet in the air, the dead ones had no idea what was going on outside the container. To them, the ground had slightly shifted. Nothing happened beyond that in their minds. Though, Kruller did look like he was having a panic attack.

"Hey. Hey. Calm down. There’s nothing to be afraid of. That was probably the door opening or something. There’s no need to panic."

"Don’t bother Chambrea. This idiot would jump out of his nonexistent skin if a Toad walked by."

"You’re not helping Steward." 

As the 'ground' below them shifted again, Kruller hugged the water gun even tighter. "It’s an earthquake! We're all going to die here!"

"Are you hearing yourself?" Lindsey scoffed. "Nikki, Ginny, can you believe this guy?"

"Yeah, what a scaredy-cat." Nikki laughed. "Honestly, he wouldn’t last a second in one of our shows. He’d be running out the door the moment we pulled out a saw."

"Shows? You call your work entertainment?" Amadeus chuckled. "Perhaps while you were alive, your hobby was more interesting but in death, your acts are not as defying. Honestly, how could anyone enjoy your cheap tricks and illusions."

"No one asked you Wolfgiest!" Ginny sneered.

"And who said I wanted a reply?"

"Can you all shut up?! I’m trying to nap here!" Clem yelled.

Serpci nodded in approval. "Honestly, all this arguing is giving me a headache. It feels like my head is full of sand." She glared at the source of the snickers. "Yes. I understand the stupid irony."

DJ Phantasmagloria shrugged. "Sorry, hehe. You know even though we're all stuck in here, I can’t help but say you guys have given me some inspiration for my next remix. The energy here is very unique."

"Well at least someone's having a good time. I’m sure by now my roost turkey is now ashes in the oven. It was browning perfectly too."

"At least if we get out of here, you’ll have a second chance at cooking again. If no one has watered my plants, they’re probably all dead by now. Blasted vacuum cleaner..." Dr. Potter hissed. 

It had taken him a week to get the perfect environment for his plants set up. Now, thanks to that facial hair phony, his work was wasted or worse, wilted.

"Right man? That vacuum guy drained my pool and popped several of the volleyballs. Sure, it was technically my pecks that deflected them but that’s hardly my fault," Johnny added and then flexed for good measure.

"I said shut up!" 

While another wave of argument began, Ug and Captain Fishook shared a sympathetic look before going back to their quiet misery. Morty, having finished his masterpiece, was ignoring his fellow ghosts and thinking of his next movie. Maybe it would be a thriller, although horror had never been his thing.

However, all this wordplay quickly came to an end when another violent shift occurred. And another. And then another. In fact, as they progressed, they steadily got worse until one particularly violent shake threw them all against the side of their containers. Clem's ducky float and Kruller squeaked on impact.

"I told you we’re all going to die!" he screamed.

MacFrights quickly took charge. "Let’s not panic. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation—" As another shake threw them against the sides again, he stammered, "Nope. Never mind. Heck, even my horse never got this violent."

Before anyone could throw their two cents in, one last shake occurred before the world began to spin. Literally. While the lab was careening towards the ground, the ghosts inside were constantly slammed into the sides of their containers. Of course, that wasn’t to say none of them tried stoping the violent tumbling. The magician sisters tried holding themselves against the container. Johnny and Ugg tried using their muscles to steady themselves. Clem managed to possess the floaty before being flung from it. Morty did his best to hold onto his chair. However, all of these attempts would end in failure as the next tremor occurred and sent them back to spiraling out of control. If they were alive, they would surely be dead by now.

"Kruller. Kruller?" As she slammed into the glass again, Chambrea managed to say, "Guys I think he passed out."

"Lucky son of a—" Soulffle was interrupted as his own frying pan slammed into his face.

"Hey—At Least—He—Stopped—Whining-!" 

"Doesn’t change the fact he doesn’t have to—Suffer through this!" Amadeus cried.

"Screw this! I’m outta here!" 

As Serpci dissolved into sand, a dewigged DJ Phantasmagloria stared in amazement. "She can do that?!"

Ug raised his hand to share his own cool power..."I was dinosaur—"...though, a club to the face interrupted him.

Pop! 

"Ducky!"

Luckily, while the ground was initially far away, the distance between it and the lab had steadily decreased. When collision did happen, the outer shell of the lab ruptured and flung itself and its contents in several directions. After a quick spin, the ghost container managed to screech to a halt. Rattled as it was, nothing seemed immediately off about the machine besides a few dents and peeling paint. The ghosts inside, however, were a different story. As if they were slammed by the Poltergust for all of their stamina, none of them had escaped unharmed. 

Like a bug splattered on a windshield, Steward laid flat against the bottom of his container complete knocked out. Chambrea's usually frazzled appearance was even messier and the stars circling her head were mixing into reality. Kruller and Soulffle were both unconscious. Amadeus was still playing his imaginary piano but his dazed expression made his technique more uncoordinated. MacFrights was mostly conscious but his horrified gaze never wavered from the sword running right through him. Dr. Potter was also conscious but his quiet mutterings distracted him from the world around him. Morty was dramatically mulling over his ruined chair. Ug was staring at imaginary birds circling his head while his club laid on top of him. Clem was wrapped up in his now deflated ducky floaty. Serpci was literally trying to pull herself together. Two of the magicians sisters were helping the third out of the hat. Captain Fishook was trying to remove his hook from the ground. Johnny was curled in on himself, sobbing his eyes out. DJ Phantasmagloria was readjusting her wig although several strands had come loose.

While some were definitely better off than others, the fall had spared none of them. And nor would the next one. As the ground shifted below them again, all of the conscious ghosts quickly slammed against the side of their respective containers although this time it was voluntary. 

'Again?!' Fishook growled.

"Nope. Can’t do this." Serpci said before dissolving again.

"If I ever got out of this stupid machine, I’m teaching that stupid green stache a lesson!" Clem hissed. As the ground shook again, he quickly changed his tune, "I'm kidding! I’m kidding!"

"I don’t think it’s the green guy that’s doing this. Doesn’t seem like the type who would endorse torture!" Lindsey yelled.

"Green guy? Oh, I’ve met him. He’s a great actor." 

"What—"

The conversation was once again cut short as they descending into free fall. Unlike the last time, however, this one ended much quicker. Though, this time, they all passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

As Mario and the others passed out hard hats, Luigi stared cautiously at the ghost containment machine. He knew King Boo and Hellen Gravely were still safely tucked away in the Poltergust but that didn’t lessen his concern. Okay. Maybe it did but that was besides the point. 

While the other ghosts had escaped the container and were currently helping with construction, the floor ghosts or boss ghosts, as E.Gadd had called them, were nowhere to be seen. He would’ve thought they would’ve been the first to escape if given the chance but they hadn’t. 

Now, he was just waiting until they all jumped out and scared him. They had been so quick to attack him before. Who’s to say they weren’t planning on doing it again? Of course, not all of them had been hostile. There was that director ghost and while he was technically coerced into acting in a kaiju movie, he couldn’t say he disliked it. It was a nice experience and a break from being attacked by everyone else. 

Ghost weren’t bad. He knew that. Polterpup and the other ghosts in Evershade Valley were pranksters but they weren’t violent. They were just being controlled by King Boo when they attacked him. And the ghosts here were no exception. Whatever that jewel was, it definitely had most of the ghost under some sort of spell. After its destruction, they had returned to what he could assume was normal. Now, as for the boss ghosts, he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t know much about ghosts—that was E.Gadd's thing. He mostly just busted them—but he was pretty sure there was something definitively different about boss ghosts. In his first fight against King Book, there were the portrait ghosts. According to E.Gadd and his own deductions, these ghosts were once alive in some capacity. Which didn’t really make sense. Weren’t all ghosts once alive? What made the portrait ghosts and subsequently, boss ghosts so special? Were Boos once alive? Are Boos dead people? If they are people than why aren’t all ghosts Boos? Was King Boo once alive? What are the morals of capturing ghosts if they—?!

As stars started spinning around him, Luigi had managed to completely confuse himself. Noticing his brother's dazed expression, Mario quickly went to check on him.

"Hey bro. You okay?"

"Uh—?!" Luigi quickly shooed the stars away. "Yeah, I’m fine. Just worried..."

"Worried? About what?"

"Is everything okay over there?" Peach called out.

"Huh? Is something wrong?"

"You okay Luigi?"

"Yeah, what’s up?"

As they all turned to him, he froze in place. Why? Why are they all looking at him? He knew they were just concerned but this wasn’t really important. They should all be focused on construction. Not on him. Definitely not on him. Nothing's wrong after all. Nothing's ever—

"Luigi—?"

"I’m fine!" he yelled out, though, he didn’t mean to.

Judging from their concerned expressions, none of them believed him. Dang it. Luckily, he was soon saved from confrontation as another voice joined the fray.

"Now, now. I’m sure Luigi's just tired. Busting ghosts is hard work and while he did have my wonderful inventions backing him up, it’s been a long night. Right Luigi?"

Thank goodness for E.Gadd's bluntness. "Yeah. I’m really just—" he yawned for effect. "—tired. I just need a quick break and I’ll be back on my feet in no time."

It wasn’t a complete lie. He was honestly tired, though, judging from the bags underneath everyones' eyes he wasn’t the exception. They all needed a break really. He shouldn’t be complaining. They were stuck in the paintings for too long. He should’ve been quicker—

"Yep. I’ll be fine in a few minutes, really."

Mario stared at him for a good solid second before sighing. "Okay Luigi. Just take all the time you need, okay?"

"Okay bro."

Mario gave him a thumbs up before walking away towards a group of ghosts. Surely to help out in construction. The toads followed his example while Peach's gaze remained for a few more seconds before she too returned her attention to the ruined hotel. E.Gadd sighed in sympathy before guiding him to a nearby fallen pillar. Exhaustion finally caught up to him and he quickly sat down and rested against the marble. 

"Thanks E.Gadd."

"No problem. Now why were you staring at the GCM?" Ah, right to the point.

He sighed. "I was just concerned about the boss ghosts."

"Really?" He laughed. "There’s no need to worry about them. They’re in a separate containment chamber from the minor ghosts. That’s why none of them escaped when the other valve broke. Honestly, could you imagine what would’ve happened if they all escaped? Please. I’m eccentric, not an idiot."

"So I’ve been worried for nothing?" He hissed.

"Yep. Though, perhaps not entirely..."

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, I haven’t actually checked the GCM yet. I know it was damaged but the extent is still a mystery to me. Though, I’m sure the boss ghosts' center is fine. I’m sure they would’ve escaped by now if it was."

"Right...Hey E.Gadd, do you think they were under King Boo's control?"

His answer came faster than he expected. "Nope! Not in the slightest."

"What makes you say that?" he inquired.

"They’re not susceptible to mind control or at least, no one has figured out how to do that yet. Thank goodness too. If I had to deal with a hoard of boss ghosts coming right at me, I would have a heart attack."

"Yeah..." Thank goodness they weren’t that coordinated but that still didn’t explain much. "What makes them not susceptible? I mean ghosts are ghost, right?"

"Yeesh! 'Ghosts are ghosts'?! That’s like saying fire flowers are ice flowers. Sure, they’re both flowers but the differences are quite stark don’t you think?"

"Well, what’s the difference between them? I mean, what makes a Boo a Boo and not—a Goob?" he stammered.

—Who the heck came up with these names?..E.Gadd. It had to be E.Gadd. 

"What makes a—? Isn’t it obvious?!" He paused. "No, I suppose it’s not obvious at all. Hehe. After all I’m the number one ghost expert and the only ghost expert...There’s not going to be an lectures or books on the subject if the only one in it is out in the field. I should probably publish something at least...But that’s besides the point, I would explain Luigi but I know you don’t want to hear a whole lecture about it. It’s really not important anyway."

"No, I do want to hear it." This got him a raised brow so he clarified, "I mean, this is the third time I’ve had to deal with ghosts. I might as well learn something about them. Maybe it’ll help me in the future if I have to deal with King Boo again." Though, he really hoped he didn’t have to. 

"Well, that’s not what I expected at all! I’m happy to explain my research to anyone who's willing to listen. If you would give me a second to prepare."

Luigi expected an impromptu speech when he first asked for it. It should’ve been a quick rundown of the basics with some things he already knew and others that he didn’t. Of course, E.Gadd always had to go the extra mile. After taking off his coat, E.Gadd wildly shook the thing until a small cube came out. As the cube hit the ground, it transformed into a large box with multiple drawers. For a few seconds, the box quaked before all of the drawers suddenly popped open revealing several white boards sprawled over with small footnotes and crudely drawn pictures. 

"Tada! This is one of my older inventions. I call it the Supernatural Education System or SNES for short. I originally made it to organize my notes but eventually, well, it got out of hand. I still use it for nostalgic sakes but I do keep extra copies of all my notes. The shrinking mechanism is actually a recent addition that I’ve been trying to integrate into all of my—"

"E.Gadd."

"Opps, got carried away there. Anyway, while I would love to show you all of my life's work that would take too long. So have any specific questions?"

"Uhh, okay." He paused, "Were all ghosts once alive? Are boss ghosts different from other ghosts? Were Boos once alive? Are Boos dead people? If they are people then why aren’t all ghosts Boos? Was King Boo once—"

"Woah, woah! Slow your roll," he interrupted. "Don’t give me a heart attack with all those questions. I’m already old as it is."

"Sorry." He hadn't meant to go on a tangent.

"It’s okay." He sounded exasperated but a genuine smile soon appeared on his face. "Besides, your questions are simple enough to answer. To give a quick rundown: no, yes, not necessarily, not necessarily again, refer back to my previous two answers, and I didn’t hear all of that one. If you want a more in-depth answer, please turn your attention to the SNES."

As if on cue, one of the boards came forward. However, his previous assumption that they were white boards quickly fell apart as the screen shifted between resolutions. Perhaps the technology could be likened to an old computer screen.

"The general definition of ghosts is that they are supernatural entities that were once alive. Subjects that tend to fall under this category are poltergeists, bonneters, boss ghosts, Boos, etcetera...Of course, the term ghost as it is used in everyday matters is quite general and inaccurate. From my research into these entities, the term ghosts actually describes several unique categories with their own subcategories. While I could go on to describe all nine categories, the ones I will be focusing on today are the Living Dead, Conglomerates, Remnants, and of course, Boos. 

"The Living Dead describe ghosts that are confirmed to have once been alive. Portrait ghosts and boss ghosts fall under this category. Now when I say they are 'confirmed to have once been alive', I mean there is a whole lot of evidence that proves their presence before they appeared as ghosts. Birth certificates, photos, videos, headstones, living sightings are just some examples of possible evidence. The Living Dead tend to appear as how they looked when they were alive. They also remember their living lives and have a definitive name to go by.

"Remnants are the most common type of ghost encountered besides Boos. They tend to gather in groups and come in a variety of shapes and colors. Unlike the Living Dead, Remnants have no evidence of a living existence. They just pop into existence. Of course, from my own research into the subject, Remnants tend to appear where ghosts already reside or where a person has just recently died. Thanks to the latter information, I believe Remnants are created out of a person's final emotions or thoughts. Whatever form the Remnant takes on depends on the last emotion or thought that formed them. 

"Conglomerates are similar to Remnants in their creation process and definition but differ in regards to formation. Unlike Remnants who tend to embody one emotion or thought, Conglomerates are composed of multiple emotions or thoughts. Because of this extra energy, Conglomerate tend to take a more unique shape. They are also more powerful than Remnants and can possess objects. Poltergeists are actually a subcategory of this type.

"Now as for Boos, they are quite tricky to pin down. Studying their kind is very difficult despite their tendency to group together in Ghost Houses. This is mostly because of their dangerous and trickster nature. Although there are Boos who don’t gather in Ghost Houses, most are very isolated and prefer to stay that way. When they are in groups, Boos increase their power and can form giant Boos. They are also able to turn objects invisible using spirit balls and access a dimension using paranormal portals. Concerning their formation, though...There’s not much to tell. They don’t tend to say much when it comes to how they came to be so that remains a mystery.

"Woo! I might’ve gotten carried away there but I believe that answers most of your questions if you manage to connect the dots. It did answer most of your questions right?"

"Uhh, I think so. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be so simple."

"Simple!" he shouted. "It’s hardly simple. These definitions took years to straighten out. Getting from one general word to nine categories with their own unique subcategories to these basic definitions wasn’t easy at all!"

Luigi flinched at the sudden outburst. "Sorry, I didn’t mean to generalize your hard work..."

E.Gadd ran his hand through his hair before sighing. "It’s okay Luigi. It was my fault for reacting so...It’s not your fault at all. Honestly, I happy you even asked about my research. Whenever I usually try to talk about ghosts or anything supernatural, people look at me like I’m crazy. It gets really irritating sometimes..." The silence lasted for a few seconds before he continued, "But you actually cared enough to ask so thank you Luigi. It’s nice when people take me seriously."

"...No problem E.Gadd. Besides, you really answered all of my questions. Are boss ghosts not susceptible to mind control because they have a more definitive form?"

He snapped his fingers. "That’s the right direction. If my hypothesis on Remnants is correct, they’re tendency to follow emotional cues leaves them open to outside influence. Boss ghosts on the other hand have a more secured identity that enables them to make their own decisions."

"So King Boo didn’t influence any of them?"

"I didn’t say that. While most ghosts share a fear of the Poltergust, that doesn’t mean they can’t fear other things. Boos are actually a dangerous force for other ghosts as they are for the living. But where exactly are you going with this?"

"I was just wondering..."

"Luigi."

"Okay, I was just wondering about the boss ghosts' motivation. Why were they so aggressive in the first place? I couldn’t have just been the Poltergust, right? I mean if it was then why aren’t the ghosts attacking us now. Shouldn’t they still be afraid?"

"The ghosts understand you aren’t going to hurt them Luigi. After the mind control ended, they could finally see you weren’t a threat."

"But what about the boss ghosts? I just wanted the elevator buttons. Heck, the director ghost, Morty I think, gave me the button after I helped him."

"Luigi, are you thinking what I think you’re thinking? Because if you are, please, get on with it."

He sighed. Why did E.Gadd have to be so blunt with everything? Though, he supposed it was better than skirting around the issue.

"Can we ask them why they attacked me?.."

E.Gadd's expression went through the five stages of grief before settling into silent curiosity. "You know what, screw it. We'll ask them alright but that doesn’t mean I’m releasing them all willy nilly. There’s a communication option when it comes to the gallery. That’s how I got all of their names. We'll ask them through that okay?"

"Wahoo! Thanks E.Gadd."

"You brothers and your stupid catchphrases...Let’s get this over with."

Before they went over to the GCM, E.Gadd slapped the side of the SNES which reverted it to its small cube form. After picking it up, they headed over to the GCM. Several animal phantoms surrounded the machine although it seemed like they were just looking at it. When they saw them approaching, most of the phantoms scattered. However, one particularly curious crow remained and before either one of them could shoo it away, it pecked at the depositor. 

Logically, nothing should’ve happened. Phantom animals were pests when they were aggressive but none of them were especially threatening. So when the GCM began to shake violently, it came as a surprise. On instinct, Luigi readied the Poltergust and flashlight. After a few more shakes, though, the machine settled down. They both let out a sigh of relief before getting closer.

"Let me check the containment unit before we access the communicator." As he opened a side maintenance panel, a plume of green smoke sprayed across his face. "Ah! The fall must’ve busted the ectoplasm net. That explains why the containment measures didn’t work."

While he looked over the rest of the machine, Luigi placed the Poltergust back into its holster. 

Beep.

A decision he soon came to regret. 

The screen on the GCM began to rapidly blink a warning message, "Warning! Warning! Subject 024 Containment Field Malfunction! Error 028! Error 028!"

"Quick Luigi! The Polter—"

The GCM once again shook violently before the depositor flew off and smacked Luigi right across the face. As he fell backwards, a cloud of dust spewed from the machine along with a very shaken up ghost. 

Subject 024 also known as Steward.

For a moment, the both of them looked as dazed as the other until E.Gadd's voice cut across the silence, "Luigi! The Poltergust!"

In an instant, he was on the offensive or he would’ve been if he hadn’t fallen. While Luigi struggled to unlatch the Poltergust, Steward frantically searched for a good hiding place. However, as he caught sight of the wreckage that was once the Last Resort, his face fell.

"What the heck happened?!"

Several ghosts looked over at the struggle but none of them seemed sure of what to do. Most of them were wearing the hard hats they were given but some were still in their hotel attire. The two Goobs that were wearing bellhop hats shared a look before waving at him. As they caught his attention, Steward's frantic mumbling stopped as he looked over the group of ghosts. Why were they wearing hard hats? The thought distracted him from the threat right behind him and as his health momentarily showed, Luigi finally freed the Poltergust. However, the quiet click of the vacuum cleaner coming free was enough to remind Steward of his presence. Upon seeing the Poltergust freed from its compartment, Steward squeaked before running—?—off towards the wreckage. 

Luigi would’ve chased after him if E.Gadd didn’t cut him off. "Wait Luigi! An Error 028 implies there may be more damage to the boss ghosts' containment center. Leave Gooigi here just in case any more of them get out."

"Gotcha."

After leaving Gooigi with E.Gadd, Luigi set off towards the area the boss ghost had disappeared to.

Neither he nor E.Gadd noticed the dent on the side of the Poltergust G-00.


	3. Chapter 3

While construction on the hotel was still in its preliminary stages, Mario could say with confidence that the pace they were going was exceptionally fast. While several factors contributed to this fact, his previous experience in construction and E.Gadd's blueprints came to mind, he could probably owe most of their success to the ghostly workers. Unlike mortals, the ghosts had no need for subsistence like food or sleep. Nope. Instead, they worked as eagerly as they did one hour to three. Of course, despite this fact, they still seemed to indulge in breaks whenever they had the chance. He would often find them chatting away in their ghostly language or eating see-through sandwiches, when he wasn’t looking. Of course, when they did notice him, they would quickly run away or pretend like nothing was happening. In the end, they were just as mischievous as they were before but now their actions simply had no malice. 

It was somewhat of a shock at first if he had to admit it. His previous experiences with ghosts were just as bad as Luigi's. Being kidnapped several times was not fun. If Peach ever got kidnapped again, he’d have to make sure to pick up the pace on rescuing her. The ghosts had stuck them in portraits but every time Bowser kidnapped Peach, she had to endure his flirting. At this point, he didn’t want to ask her which was worse. He could probably bet on them being about even, though, it wasn’t really his business. 

He sighed. Hopefully. Hopefully, all these kidnappings would end.

Anyway, despite everything, things were better. They were reconstructing the hotel and King Boo was out of their hairs once again and hopefully forever.

Of course, as a very familiar looking bellhop sped past him, he had reason to doubt that peace. Luigi soon followed in the other's footsteps—?—and before he could even get a word out, Luigi interrupted him,

"Where’d he go bro?!"

The unexpected shout caused him to point immediately to where the ghost had ran off to and just as quickly as his appearance, Luigi left.

Mario would’ve ran after him but an unexpected scream caught him off guard. It sounded high pitched and slightly female...

Peach! 

As he ran off towards the scream, Mario convinced himself that Luigi would be fine. He had the Poltergust with him. He should be able to handle himself.  
__ __ ___ ___ __ __

As Luigi ran off after the escapee, E.Gadd quickly began work on fixing the GCM. While he tinkered away on the machine, Gooigi stood guard at the front of it. If any more ghosts decided to run off, it would capture them and...

And what exactly? They couldn’t just put them back in the GCM after all. While Gooigi was a perfectly acceptable ghost catcher, its Poltergust was only meant to serve as a temporary containment field. Whenever it returned to the Poltergust G-00, the ghosts it captured were transported to the containment storage within the device. He had only just begun working on expanding Gooigi's containment field when he had received an invite to the hotel. He didn’t even know how many ghosts Gooigi could maintain at a time! If all the boss ghosts escaped, he could only imagine the power needed to contain them all in such a small space. His portraits had been his solution to this problem along with the lack habitable ghostly locations. But he neither had his portrification device on him nor his magic paint. The paintbrush was still missing after all this time too. He supposed he would just have to fix the device as quickly as possible 

Of course, before he could do that, he had to figure out which part of the containment center failed. The ectoplasm net had come undone that much was obvious but that was only for the lesser ghosts. The boss ghosts were all contained within their own individual safety units. Something had to have malfunctioned there. Maybe the problem was only within Subject 024's safety unit, though. He could hope right?

As the GCM began shacking again, he already had the answer to his question.

"Warning! Warning! Subject 025 Containment Field Malfunction! Error 028! Error 028!"

"Gooigi! Get the Poltergust ready!"

Unlike its counterpart's clumsy movements, Gooigi responded immediately with the Poltergust at its side. As the GCM shuddered again, another plume of smoke spewed from the machine. As the air cleared, subject 025, Chambrea, dusted herself off.

"Woo! Finally out of that thing. What took you so long Stew—! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!" As her gaze settled on the ruined hotel, she yelled out, "What's going on?! Why’d they wreck the hotel?!"

Her reaction caused E.Gadd to pause. Her response was quite similar to the bellhop's. Perhaps...

As he waved Gooigi to pause the attack, he coughed. "Excuse me, Miss, do you mind answering a few—"

"Eeeekkkk!!! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to steal your luggage! I promise!"

Huh. Not the reaction he was expecting but okay. This is fine. He could work with this.

"It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m sure you did it for some reason...Mind telling me what that reason is?"

"Hmm? Reason?" As her gaze drifted back to the hotel, she sighed. "Well, if I’m going to be honest...habit?"

"Habit?"

"Well, as a maid, it was my duty to clean the guests' rooms. I mostly skimmed over the luggage, personal objects and all, but there were some occasions where..."

As her face paled a lighter blue, E.Gadd had the feeling he might’ve crossed into...death causes. In his research, he quickly learned most 'Living Dead' didn’t like talking about how they died. Of course, that didn’t keep them from gossiping on how the others died so he still managed to fill out most of their bios. 

"Miss Chambrea."

"Hmm?"

"Would you mind telling me how you came to work at the Last Resort?"

She brightened up at that. "Oh! I’ve always worked here. Even when the boiler blew up, I stuck around until the place came under new management."

"New management?"

"Miss Gravely, sir. While she was quite strict, I can say with confidence she breathed new life into the place. Hired a lot of new help too. Kept the place less dusty in the long run, though, I guess that doesn’t matter now." Her gaze drifted back to the ruin hotel. "Guess I’ll have to find a new place to work at..."

He smiled. Now that was something he could solve. "Actually, I think that would be unnecessary."

Chambrea immediately assumed the worst as she looked towards the Poltergust.

"No, not that!" he interrupted. "We’re actually reconstructing the hotel for the other ghosts. I understand how annoying it it is to find lodgings without pesky Boos. Most ghost mansions I’ve encountered are overrun with them after all. So if you want to continue working at the hotel, that’s an option."

"Really? No paintings or anything?"

"Nope. None at all." The paintings weren’t that bad, were they? While the painting he was stuck in wasn’t pleasant, those portraits weren’t like his. Those were King Boo's version of the things.

"That’s...that’s great! Do you guys need help? I'm sure I can organize some of the maids. Redd would be a great help, I know it!"

"That’s a wonderful idea. Though, may I ask—"

The sound of the GCM shaking and the error message threw them off and as the machine exploded again, the scream that echoed from it sounded discouraging. Instinctively, they both hid behind Gooigi as it readied the Poltergust. As the next ghost flew out of the machine, it only landed a few inches away from the thing. As Kruller lifted his eyes from the ground, he was met with the thousand yard stare of Gooigi. 

"Aaahhhhhhh!" he yelped.

Despite holding Gooigi's weakness in his hand, Kruller immediately dived behind the GCM which didn’t even conceal him. At this point, Gooigi determined that capture seemed unnecessary with how scared the ghost actually was. E.Gadd seemed to share the same sentiment at least as he went around the machine.

"Um, excuse me. Are you al-"

"Eeeekkkk!" Once again his scream deafened the people around him and as he accidentally threw the water gun into the air and away, he lost his only line of defense. He seemed to realize this too as he slowly began backing away from the small scientist.

At this point, E.Gadd and Gooigi were just dumbfounded at the mall cop ghost. How could someone be so cowardly? 

Luckily, Chambrea had been working with Kruller for a while so she was used to his antics, "Kruller, everything’s okay. They’re not going to hurt you."

"How-how do you kno-ow Chambrea?" he shuddered. "They were the ones who raided the ho—Hotel?! What the heck happened to it?!"

"Well—actually..." Chambrea paused. "...that’s a good quest—"

"Where am I supposed to work at now?" he whined. "My old job wanted to get rid of me so I can’t go back there..."

"Old job? Mind clarifying?" E.Gadd said while holding a notebook and pen.

Despite the implications, Kruller replied, "Coconut Mall on Isle Delfino...It was a nice gig too until I overheard they were going to hire a ghost hunter! Luckily, I already had a new job offer so I avoided them."

Ah! He remembered that call awhile ago. The owners had specifically requested him for the job although their description of the ghost now seemed wildly off the mark. 'Scary haunter with no form and malicious tendencies,' yeah right. More like clumsy cop who couldn’t shoot straight. And he had been excited about that hunt too. He was looking forward to another Bogmire to deal with. Oh well, it doesn’t matter now. They had canceled the request after the ghost went away. He now knew where it wandered off to at least.

"I see, I see. Thanks for the information."

Not like he was going to say that out loud, though. The ghost was already a scaredy cat without his help. He wasn’t going to add fuel to the fire.

"Uh, excuse me." Chambrea tapped him on the shoulder. "Back to a previous question, what exactly happened? I mean, I heard from the others that you upgraded the Poltergust but did it really do all this?"

"No, though, it would be quite the feat indeed. The Super Suction can only work when it’s plugged in and even then, it wouldn’t be able to do this." Perhaps he should get working on that actually. He wouldn’t need to go through an entire ghost house if he could just suck up the whole thing from the outside. He’d definitely have to look into that.

"Then how’d you wreck the place if it wasn’t the Poltergust?" Kruller side eyed Gooigi. "Did it destroy it?"

E.Gadd laughed at that. "Well, now that’s just ridiculous, though, I suppose I can’t really fault you for that. Gooigi was the one who dealt with you if I’m correct."

"Gooigi?" Chambrea looked over the spectral goob creature. "Oh! I think we haven’t met yet. I thought it was that green hatted fellow from before." As she looked over it, though, a frown fell over her face. "Not a very expressive guy is he?"

"I think we’re getting off topic here—To answer your previous question, it was King Boo who—"

"Professor!"

E.Gadd frowned. Why couldn’t the world just let him finish? He turned to face the older brother. "What is it Mario?" The expression on the other's face suggested the question should’ve been obvious but in the moment, it eluded him. Noticing his raised brow, Mario gestured towards the two ghosts behind him...Good point, good point. "Oh, uh, Mario this is Chambrea and Kruller. Um, I’m sure you guys caught his name right?"

As Kruller moved to place the GCM between him and Mario, Chambrea gave a friendly wave to the newcomer. The expression on Mario's face only became more confused of course.

"Professor, what is going on? I saw Luigi run by me chasing the bellhop ghost and now—Just what is happening?!"

As the ghost's expressions soured, E.Gadd realized that maybe he should’ve explained the situation better. "Uh, wait. It’s not how it sounds like—"

"Warning! Warning! Subject 027 and—"

"Oh get on with it!" he yelled.

And so as the machine rumbled again, E.Gadd expected everything to get a whole lot worse.


	4. Chapter 4

After defeating King Boo, Luigi expected things to die down a little bit. Maybe the Boo would escape later or something, but he thought that maybe things would be okay for a while. Construction had started out fine too. The ghosts were all cooperating and besides a few managerial mishaps, things had been working out. 

So why did this have to happen now? 

For the past night, he had been capturing the hostile boss ghosts and now, there was a chance that all of them would escape. Who knows what they would do after that. They had all seemed clearly out to get him whenever he set foot on their floor after all and some had even taunted him with the elevator buttons before attacking him. They knew what he was there for and they attacked him for it. He had just wanted to save his friends for Pete’s sake. 

He had even thought about asking them for their motives but now that just seemed pointless. He sighed. After this, all he wanted to do was sleep for the next seven hours. Was that too much to ask? Probably with his luck.

Despite these depressing thoughts, as Luigi turned into the ruins Mario had pointed to, he paused. 

Floating in a relative clear area was the bellhop ghost and two Goobs. The Goobs themselves had similar bellhop hats. Although they'd handed out hard hats to the ghosts, several groups of them were still in their hotel attire. One particular Hammer insisted on wearing its maid outfit despite several offers. It was probably for the best really. Some of the other Hammers ate their hard hats and those things were already in limited supply. Anyway, despite dealing with the bellhop ghost relatively quickly before, Luigi hid behind a wall to listen in on their conversation. Maybe he could learn something.

"And what do you two have to say for yourselves? Those people were the ones who raided the hotel! Why are you hanging out with them?!"

As the sound of gibberish reached his ears, Luigi frowned. So he could only hear one half of the conversation. Great.

"Construction? Weren’t they the ones who wrecked the hotel in the first place?—No? Well who was it then? Come on speak up.—!.." He yelped. "King Boo?! I knew it! Rescuing that guy was a bad idea! Just look at what he did..." As he floated around the fallen wreckage, his shoulders slumped. "Now this place will never be the same..." 

At this, the two Goobs brightened up. After giving their nonsensical opinion, Steward's frown only deepened.

"And she brought the only two ghost hunters in the world here! The Poltergust for Pete's sake! It’s our only weakness and she invited the person who invented it here??? What was the logic in that?!"

This peaked his interest. So the ghost did know about Hellen Gravely's plan. It made sense in hindsight. He was the only boss ghost who was there when they arrived at the hotel. Maybe he could elaborate what stakes the boss ghosts had in the whole plan. The way he reacted to King Boo's name also sounded strange. It was clear the bellhop didn’t like the Boo so maybe he was coerced into this. E.Gadd did mention that Boos were dangerous to other ghosts. Maybe the boss ghosts were just dragged into this. He’d have to get more solid information.

As he emerged from his hiding spot, the two Goobs immediately noticed him. Although they showed no signs of hostility, their change in demeanor caught the bellhop's attention.

"What are you two looking—Ahhh!!!"

"Uh, Hello? Would you mind clarifying some—!"

As a huge bolder came flying at him, Luigi only had a few seconds to dodge it. While he succeeded, Steward was already on the search for more ammo. By the first sign of aggression, the two Goobs had fled for safer pastures. It was only the two of them now. As the second boulder flew his way, Luigi rolled out of the way and unlatched the Poltergust. 

The fight had begun.

Before Luigi could deal any damage to the boss ghost, he first had to get close enough to shine the flashlight at him. Luckily, while his first few throws were from a distance, Steward's strength was already beginning to falter. As the ghost stopped to take a breather, Luigi took the opportunity to stun him. The moment his health appeared, Luigi turned on the Poltergust. The struggle immediately began and as Steward ran against the pull of the vacuum cleaner, Luigi did his best to keep his footing. They kept at this for several seconds before Luigi lost his grip on the Poltergust allowing the ghost to escape. As he faded into the shadows, Luigi managed to catch a glimpse at his remaining health.

60 hp.

Steward was already below half health. Had the ghost not have faded, Luigi would’ve done a double take. He was still tired from beating King Boo and yet, he had taken off so much health in one cycle? The boss ghost should’ve had ample time to recover from their first encounter. The bellhop had been the first boss ghost he had captured after all. Something must’ve been wrong.

Before he could think on this, another boulder flew at him. As he ducked below it, he turned towards the direction it came from. However, Steward was already gone. Ah, he wanted to play it that way then? Well, he had a way to deal with sneaky ghosts. As he switched the Dark Light bulb on, he scanned it over the surrounding area. For a split second, he saw the tail of a ghost.

Gotcha. 

Running for the area he saw it in, he turned on his flashlight and immediately began shining it around him. As Steward blocked the light with his arms, his health flashed and the Poltergust began again.

As the struggle began, sixty health quickly drained to fifty, to forty, to thirty...and it kept going. When the ghost's health reached the tens, Steward began digging into the floor to escape the Poltergust's pull.

"No! No! Not again! I don’t want to be stuck in there with them!"

That struck a chord within him. Them? Did he mean Hellen Gravely and King Boo? Was the boss ghost actually afraid of them? If so, he felt a little bad capturing him with the Poltergust. Leaving him to deal with his worst fears was just cruel. King Boo did it to him whenever he captured Mario and forced him to him to fight ghosts. He couldn’t do that to someone else, no matter who they were.

As he switched off the Poltergust something snapped within it. Alarmed, Luigi tried turning it on only for it to only begin going in reverse. While he tried to switch the thing off, Steward, who was at one hp, noticed a relative large luggage bag. Taking the opportunity, he lifted it above his head and prepared to throw it at the would-be ghost hunter only for it to fall on him as his arms gave way. As his remaining hp sputtered to zero, Luigi didn’t notice the boss ghost's defeat. No. His attention remained solely on the malfunctioning Poltergust and as it gave one last huff, he was met with a familiar face.  
__ __ ___ ___ __ __

To E.Gadd's surprise, things did not immediately go to shit. Since the GCM was releasing the ghosts in the order Luigi had caught them in, it was obvious these two would appear next which hadn’t given him much hope initially. Now that they were out and about, however, his expectations were being surprisingly subverted. The key word "being" of course. Things could change at a drop of a hat when it came to ghosts.

As the pianist ghost dusted himself off, the chef ghost slowly turned his attention towards E.Gadd. His brow raised for a moment and before the scientist could elaborate on, well, anything, Chef Soulffle snapped his fingers.

"The painting! That’s where I remember you from!"

E.Gadd felt himself froze in place as the other, more threatening, ghost joined the conversation. "Why would the hotel have a painting of someone's who’s clearly alive. Don’t be ridiculous, it’s probably an ancestor of his."

"No, I’m pretty sure it was him. The figure had the lab coat and everything..." He paused in thought before turning to Chambrea. "I’m right Chambrea, aren’t I? On the second floor ballroom, there was an exact painting of this man. Right?"

"What—? No! Soulffle, that’s not what we should be discussing right now! That ghost hunter from before chased after Steward! We shouldn’t be fraternizing with these people!"

Gooigi and Mario immediately tensed but they were ignored. Mostly. Kruller did flinch.

"Ha!" Amadeus laughed. "And why should we fear them? With my piano I can easily crush them beneath my nonexistent feet. There is no reason why I should cower." His eyes narrowed at Kruller. "Though, perhaps my words do not apply to all of us."

Before Kruller could defend himself (though, let’s face the facts, he wasn’t going to), Chambrea pointed towards the destroyed hotel. 

"My roast turkey!" Chef Soulffle cried out as he fell to his knees (?).

While the other erupted in tears, the other's reaction was much more...erratic. The wrath that emanated from the musician was suffocating and as his hair slowly unraveled, his face became more deranged. E.Gadd had had his fill of vengeful ghosts but the figure standing in front of him seemed more primal, more dangerous. Luigi had "destroyed" Amadeus Wolfgiest's piano during the fight but perhaps the pianist could’ve repaired it if given the chance to access its remains. Now, said remains were probably buried under tons of concrete and wooden beams. 

"My piano!" 

As the ghost's full wrath was unleashed, everyone in his immediate vicinity backed away except Gooigi who already had the Poltergust unlatched. However, unlike his previous well coordinated onslaught, Amadeus skipped to his last phase. As his claws slashed across Gooigi, the once formed Poltergust segmented into several pieces and collapsed onto the ground. Before the goo could even return, Amadeus had already sliced through Gooigi's torso. Although Gooigi's regenerative properties kept him mostly stable, the speed at which Amadeus kept up his offense turned its Luigi figure into cubes. Gooigi's attempt to defeat the ghost only managed to stall it.

The short lived fight had barely given anyone time to escape farther than a few feet. Amadeus quickly turned his attention towards the closest person. As he slashed downward on the small scientist, E.Gadd only managed to dodge through sheer luck and even then, part of his lab coat was torn in the process. Before the musician could attack again, water splashed onto his face. 

Initially, the only person who managed to escape from the general vicinity was Kruller. However, it was only after the swift defeat of Gooigi, that the cop realized the exact danger everyone else was in. Just because he managed to escape didn’t mean everyone else did. So out of a sense of bravery or stupidity, often times they could be one and the same, Kruller picked up his gun and shot Amadeus. As the other's rage filled gaze stared into his soul, he figured it was probably stupidity that set him on this current route. Within a few seconds, the musician had closed the distance between them and despite being dead already, Kruller had enough sense to scream at the top of his lungs. 

Luckily, they weren’t the only ones around the hotel's remains. Just before Amadeus's mangled claws could give the cop a new face lift, several Goobs twirled between them. To everyone's surprise, the ghost stopped his attack. 

"What do you want." He hissed. "Don’t you realize these people crushed your instruments as well. All of that work ruined and you expect me simply let it pass!"

His yell managed to catch some of them off guard but at least one of them managed to keep their glare before starting off on a gibberish filled rant.

Their reply only added fuel to the fire it seemed. "Please. I don’t give a damn about this pigsty. We could perform anywhere and it would be just as rewarding. Or wait, excuse me. I meant to say could’ve performed. After all, everything's been destroyed hasn’t it?"

The main Goob only rolled their eyes at that before pulling out a piano key. This immediately caused the musician to freeze in place.

"Where did you find it?" A swift reply in gibberish and... "Take me there. We have no time to waste."

As they set off towards some part of the ruins, they ignored the frightened stares of everyone else. A reformed Gooigi didn’t even bother trying to chase after them. They would need several Poltergusts and good timing to capture that ghost.

"Well that could’ve gotten a lot worst," E.Gadd said as he inspected his lab coat. It had torn before so the damage wasn’t that bad. As he looked around at the others, he quickly figured this was his best chance to explain things. "Okay! Before anyone starts anything else, I would like to clarify things!" This got their attention. "First things first, before the GCM went on the fritz, Luigi and I were planning on getting your side of the story. When Steward was released, we had initially panicked due to previous circumstances coming to mind."

"Previous circumstances? You’re the ones who invaded the hotel!" 

While the chef's comment initially caught him off guard, E.Gadd recovered quickly, "Apparently. I’ll have you know that the person in the painting was me! I had been trapped in that thing for a week before Luigi arrived."

"Eh? You were trapped in a painting?" Wasn’t he the one who usually trapped them in paintings.

His reply was swift, "Yes and it was highly unpleasant. Though, my paintings are much more room—"

"E.Gadd please..." Mario's ability to process his surroundings was reaching its limit.

"Rightio. Anyway, the fact that none of you realized I was in the painting implies something...Tell me, why exactly did you think we were invading the hotel as you put it."

Kruller raised his hand. "Miss Gravely, sir. She warned us that a ghost hunter would be coming to the hotel..."

"And there you have it. In reality, we were invited to the hotel and subsequently, trapped soon after. That is what I meant be previous circumstances. Though, I do apologize for assuming the worst about your friend."

Chambrea was still mildly miffed about that but Kruller and Soulffle seemed significantly calmer. However, there was still an important question that needed to be answered. "But how did the hotel collapse in the first place? Miss Gravely would never put her establishment in this sort of disarray. She worked tirelessly to fill the hotel with professionals, basement to penthouse, within a month!"

Before E.Gadd could reply, the GCM interrupted the conversation, "Warning! Warning! Subject 029 Containment Field Malfunction! Error 028! Error 028!"

Despite being launched from the machine, MacFrights looked more annoyed than frazzled. As his gaze turned to the hotel, he had the gall to comment, "Well, it was about time someone demolished that eyesore. Honestly, how did she expect to get any guests with that exterior design?"

E.Gadd raised a brow. "You seem rather calm about this." 

"Why wouldn’t I? If you had seen the conditions I was coerced into working in, you would be just as happy to see it destroyed."

"Mind clarifying."

He huffed but continued, "Not so long ago, I received a letter addressed to me. Miss Gravely had asked me to move to the hotel and oversee one of its floors. I had refused on the basis of why I was currently haunting my residence but she insisted I at least visit the establishment. She said she wanted to host a jousting tournament with a professional at the helm. While I still refused to stay, I figured one quick vacation wouldn’t be so bad. Much to my surprise," he rolled his eyes, "The so called tournament was just a tourist trap. Authentic castle interior? More like bargain bin plastic! Sure the weapons and armor were real enough if you consider blunted recasts real. And the audience! Literal cardboard cutouts! She didn’t even bother telling any of the hotel staff to pretend to be interested. Don’t even get me started on this green hatted...This isn’t the ghost hunter from before, is he?"

"That’s Googi. Luigi isn’t here right now."

"Hmph...Figures. Anyway, after being informed of a supposed ghost hunter invading the hotel, I wanted to leave immediately. Of course, while I wanted to, I couldn’t! All of the elevator buttons had been stolen besides the basement. I didn’t know the layout of the hotel enough to know whether there was a staircase leading up to the first floor so I didn’t even bother. I didn’t want to get trapped in the basement after all. I only received my own elevator later from that pesky cat and it wasn’t even my own floor button."

"But aren’t you a ghost? Shouldn’t you be able to go through walls?" 

"The hotel was a ghost house Mario."

"That doesn’t explain anything...I mean I know what a ghost house is in the practical sense..."

He sighed. "A ghost house is a building that’s especially tied to ghosts. In layman's terms, it’s like a regular house but for ghosts. With more fantastical attributes, of course, to compensate for their status. Ghost houses actually work differently for all types of ghosts. While Remnants and Conglomerates can pass from floor to floor easily, the Living Dead are like us. They can only use the intended means like staircases or elevators. This caveat pales in comparison to all the much cooler abilities the Living Dead posses, however."

While the explanation was informative, the so called Living Dead were slightly disturbed at the accuracy of it. None of them decided to comment on it.

MacFrights coughed. "Yes, well...Anyway, I was trapped on my floor so I decided to wait for the ghost hunter. I wasn’t going without a fight of course and I had enough pride to stick to my skills. You can probably guess how that went..."

"Yes, I suppose I can." E.Gadd turned to Chambrea. "Well, Miss Chambrea. It seems as if not all the professional hirers wanted to be here necessarily. In fact, it seems like Miss Gravely was quite adamant on their arrival...I think I can answer why now."

"What do you mean..."

The silence that followed could’ve been cut with a knife.

"I mean to say it was an elaborate set up..." E.Gadd took off and started cleaning his glasses. "...As all of you know now, I am the one and only professional ghost researcher. Because of this, I have a unique curiosity when it comes to all things ghost and I will seek out anything I can involving them. While my work at Evershade Valley launched my career into new researching heights and the creation of Gooigi was a new venture, I still did my best to keep up with the haunted news. Tourist trap or not, any and all cases inherently fell onto me when it came to capturing or researching ghosts. You could guess my surprise when I received a letter inviting me to a hotel with its very own ghost painting collection..." As he put his glasses back on, the ghosts around him flinched. His words were not lost on them. He continued, "The letter said that if I came, I could keep the paintings and at the time, I wanted to expand my collection. She even sent me a short bio of each one. A mall cop. A professional chef. An actual King. A maid. Just to name a few..."

The looks on each of their faces said enough.

Kruller looked like he was about to faint and Soulffle's grip on his frying pan seemed to dent the handle.

Chambrea remained silent for her part.

Which MacFrights made up for, "She...she invited me to the hotel...TO SERVE AS BAIT!" While MacFrights rage paled in comparison to Amadeus's, the air around him seemed to shift and Gooigi went into caution mode immediately. Luckily, unlike the musician, the noble calmed after a few huffs. "How dare she and what for?! Just to satisfy her own pride. To capture a ghost hunter? How—How painfully vain! She wanted to risk all of our afterlives just to play trickster."

"Not exactly. Which brings me into my next point. Who destroyed the hotel. Have any of you heard the name King Boo before?"


	5. Chapter 5

When Mario and Luigi told her they had won an all paid expense trip to a fancy hotel, Peach had been happy for them. After her "last" kidnapping (she hated calling it that), she had taken a vacation with Tiara and they had visited all of the places they had only seen from on top the airship. It was a nice break to say the least but in the back of her mind, she knew Mario was still hard at work. The wreckage from the Moon had landed all over the planet and while the Power Moons weren’t inherently dangerous, if they fell into the wrong hands...She didn’t even want to think about what would’ve happened. Their travels were for a good cause in the end and Luigi had helped out as well. 

That didn’t mean she wasn’t worried about them. They had worked so hard and all she managed to come up with was a cake. Never mind it was a delicious cake, it was still just a cake. So when she heard about the hotel, she was happy. And when they invited her to come with, she was even happier. She and her best friends just hanging out. It would’ve so nice. Sure, it was unfortunate Daisy couldn’t come but she had promised to visit after the trip. Now that she thought of it, it was a good thing Daisy hadn’t come, though, she probably could’ve kicked King Boo's butt if she was here.

Pushing that aside, despite her initial enthusiasm, things didn’t turn up all sunshine and daisies. She ended up being kidnapped again along with everyone else except Luigi. Lucky that too. Apparently he was an expert ghost hunter. And by expert ghost hunter, she meant this had happened two times before! Sure, it was only twice but that was still twice too much. Though, she had been kidnapped by Bowser several times now. Maybe she shouldn’t judge...Either way, in the moment, everything had gone to shit.

They were better now if better could be considered hiding behind a fallen pillar. While she, Todd, Roger, and Steve were helping with construction, several new ghosts had appeared in the area along with a musician ghost. Todd was immediately on the alert and had practically pushed them into safety. As he explained, the musician ghost had been the one who had his painting which was reason enough to hide. So they had stayed in place despite several glances from the other construction working ghosts who hadn’t reacted at all at the others' arrival. 

Now, it had been several minutes and no help was appearing. Maybe, Mario, Luigi, and E. Gadd were trapped somewhere or maybe, they didn’t know the ghost had escaped. Either way, she needed to overcome this. For now, she would simply listen.

"And you’re sure this is where you found it or is this place like all the other ruins around this miserable landfill?"

This garnered several angry shouts from the construction worker ghosts but the ones who had come with him only rolled their eyes. One of tutu wearing ones pointed to the large concrete block they had been discussing about demolishing before their arrival and then said what sounded like a bunch of garbled gibberish. This caused the hair of the musician ghost to rise and in an instant, Peach felt a wave of negative emotions pass by. 

Ever since her adventure with Perry, she had been privy to other's emotions on a sort of supernatural level. It had been overwhelming at first but overtime, she had learned to control and use it to her advantage. Of course, the incidents where she did use it were purely for the sake of others. As easy as it would’ve been to manipulate others through this ability, whenever she thought of using it that way, she couldn’t help but gag. It would’ve been exceedingly wrong and cruel to do that to someone, whoever they might be. (Though, a certain Koopa did come to mind.)

At the very least, she now understood how the ghost was feeling. Now she just needed the context.

"Here?! It’s under here?!" He gestured to the block in question. "How the heck do you expect to remove this! That key was a fluke! The rest of it is probably ground to dust and shrapnel by now!" The other ghosts blanched at his reply which only stirred a more rage filled rant. "And if this—" he held up a piano key—"is what’s left of my piano just imagine the rest of your instruments! Flattened beyond repair I bet!" His appearance then suddenly shifted back into how it looked before. 

...For a moment, she thought the anger radiating from the ghost had calmed but she quickly realized her mistake. This feeling wasn’t calm at all. It was now a pungent hurricane of focused hostility. This was just the eye of the storm. The rest of it was coming and whoever it hit would be tossed into oblivion...

He seethed. "...The concert was cancelled the moment those ghost hunters arrived."

Peach felt chills. She had to do something. 

And she had to do it now.

As she stepped out from behind the pillar, she felt fear and concern roll off her friends. She returned their worried glances with a small smile. 

"Excuse me, I’m sorry for interrupting but I think I may be of some assistance."

Her appearance garnered several reactions. The construction worker ghosts who were previously ignoring the new arrivals tensed immediately. Their gazes shifted between her and the musician as if they were looking for when they should intervene. Their concern was a slight comfort she had to admit. The ghosts who had arrived with the musician had taken a similar stance, though, some were already approaching their leader from the side. They probably understood his temper more than the others.

The musician himself seemed unfazed by her arrival. He was still angry, that much was obvious but now, there was a hint of curiosity. "And who are you supposed to be?"

"I’m Peach Toadstool. I'm acting as one of the managers here. For demolition specifically." 

"Demolition?" He would never admit it amongst his doubt but a twinge of hope did spark from his words. 

Peach smiled as if she knew none of that, though. "Yes. In fact, I recently funded the reconstruction of several landmarks and while I wasn’t in charge of demolition in those cases, I did assist in providing several useful power-ups during it. I actually have a couple with me." She motioned for Steve to bring her suitcase. 

While most of them had been destroyed when the hotel came crashing down, one in particular survived mainly due to the fact it was reinforced. The suitcase in question contained a plethora of power-ups. She had brought it on a whim and while she hadn’t gotten to it in time to stop Kind Boo, it seemed to be coming through now.

Steve seemed to understand what she was getting at and despite Todd's cry of panic, strolled out into the open with suitcase in hand. After he handing it to her, she smiled and opened the case to reveal a Super Hammer. "This is a Super Hammer which if I may demonstrate—" she activated it and tapped the hammer into a broken pillar which crumbled to more manageable rubble immediately—"is quite effective at destroying things. You see what I’m getting at, right?" 

The hurricane had calmed into a regular storm but there was still an underlining edge of tension. Doubt was still prevalent. The musician floated over to the recently created rubble and lifted one of the pieces. He turned it in his hands before looking back at her. 

"Can you really destroy this block in such a timely manner." His words were a challenge.

She plucked the reasonably sized piece of marble from his hands and smiled before tapping it with the hammer and reducing it to dust. "I’m pretty sure I can."  
__ __ ___ ___ __ __

Demolition began immediately and within twenty minutes, she had whittled the block into manageable pieces of rubble. While she had been at work, the construction ghosts had taken to her enthusiasm and were moving said rubble into spaced out piles. The new arrivals had uncovered most of their instruments and while several had been dented, they managed to iron out most of the kinks using their ghostly abilities. The instruments that had been fractured beyond repair by normal standards were also fitted back together with ease. This was actually done by the musician ghost who she had yet to learn the name of. The musician himself seemed to be waiting for the moment the whole block had been removed. Which, luckily for him, was about to arrive. 

Just as the last piece of rubble was removed, the Super Hammer finally wore off. Todd, Roger, and Steve were immediately by her side as she fell to the dirt. They helped her sit up just as the real spectacle began.

She knew something was happening the moment she lifted her head. The ghosts who had been clearing the rubble had floated away and were now just staring at the clearing they had created. The instrumental ghosts had joined them and were each holding their instruments reverently. The musician ghost had moved to the middle of the clearing and had closed his eyes in concentration. 

Outward appearances weren’t the only thing that was different. From her first arrival, she knew something was at least off about the hotel. The emotions ghosts displayed were drastically different from living people. Living people tended to stay in a state of neutrality unless otherwise provoked into something stronger. Crowds of the living were comparable to a still lake. On the surface calm with the occasional ripple.

When she had entered the hotel, she felt waves of emotions radiating off everyone. She should’ve realized something was wrong but instead, she justified it as excitement at their arrival.

There was never a state of calm amongst the ghosts. They were like the ocean. Always restless. Always moving.

She was wrong. Because in this moment, there was calm. There was peace. 

And she knew why. After all, oceans had islands.

Like a conductor raising an orchestra, the musician lifted their arms into the air, the piano key resting in his right hand, before drawing forward in a pretend performance. The piles of rubble shook as a force wrestled their pieces apart. Several wooden boards and metal castings shot out from within them and headed straight for the ghost. As they converged, she flinched if only for a second and a second was all it took. The instant she opened her eyes there was a fully formed piano in front of her. The musician was gone in its place but as a yellow colored energy rose from the piano's boards, he soon reappeared above it. The ghosts around them cheered as the musician bowed.

Despite the joyous occasion, though, curiosity took the better of her.

"Excuse me, I think I’ve seen this piano before."

A feeling she never thought would surface from the ghost poked her. Fear. He slowly turned to face her and while his posture was relaxed, his eyes dared her to continue. 

Fear was not as violent as anger in its creation but in execution, it could be far worst. She took a deep breath before she continued, "I believe it was stationed at Music Park's Museum Pathway several years ago. It was the pride of the museum since it belonged to a famous pianist a long time ago. I also believe it was stolen several years ago."

"And rightfully so," he spat. "An instrument isn’t meant to collect dust on a podium. They should’ve left it in the concert hall they found it in."

"Right but I also recall it resurfaced some time afterwards." As he paled a lighter tint of purple, she nodded in understanding. "It was found at a ghost house and recovered before being thrown out because it was—"

"Haunted," he finished and the fear dissipated. 

Whatever the reason it appeared wasn’t her business. She felt herself finally relaxing, however.

He too seemed to accept the calm as he continued, "So you know of me...princess."

"And you of me...Mr. Wolfgeist?"

"Yes that is my name...Did you think I wouldn’t recognize the last name?"

She shrugged. "I like avoiding honorifics whenever I can. I’d just like to say it’s nice to meet you."

"Same to you." They shook hands and she managed to repress a shiver. He continued without noticing, "Now, while I do believe your expertise in demolition is justified, why would a member of royalty visit a rundown hotel?"

The several gasps and boos from the surrounding ghosts were pointedly ignored as the conversation continued.

"I came with my friends. The ones you threatened not to long ago." 

"The ghost hunters who raided the hotel." 

Before any anger could rear its ugly head, she interrupted, "Stop right there. We were invited. From our perspective, we were the ones attacked." She pointed at Todd who instinctively hid behind Roger as Amadeus's gaze reached them.

"The red one..."

"Todd."

"Whatever...I was given a painting depicting him. The resemblance is sort of uncanny."

She slapped her forehead. "That was him! We were stuck in paintings."

This seemed to catch him off guard. "Paintings? Maybe Soulffle was right..." he mumbled.

The last of the storm was dying into a drizzle. Now all she had to do was disperse the remaining clouds. "Now do you understand? Luigi wasn’t trying to capture any of you. He was just defending himself and trying to rescue us."

He rolled his eyes at this but she knew the blue sky had finally returned. "Fine. While that doesn’t justify crashing a hotel onto our instruments, I will accept your help as a good enough apology."

She sighed. "Actually it was—"

Before she could clarify, two blue ghosts ran up to her and began frantically waving their arms and talking gibberish. While she was uncertain about anything they were trying to say, they were definitely afraid. Something must’ve gone wrong.

Her thoughts immediately turned towards the others. If Amadeus Wolfgeist had escaped, what had happened to her friends.

Before she could assume the worst, however, Amadeus translated, "They’re saying a Luigi is fighting...Steward? Ha! What can he do against a seasoned ghost hunter?"

The two ghosts glared at him for that but she quickly interrupted, "Can you take me to them, please?"

They looked at each other before nodding. As she followed after them with her suitcase, she yelled back, "Sorry I have to go! Please watch after the others while I’m gone!" 

Despite her words, she did not wait to hear his reply as she left his sight . Amadeus silently looked back to his orchestra and the other ghosts. 

He straightened his posture before shouting, "You heard her. Get back to whatever you were doing." 

The construction worker ghosts nodded and quickly went back to work. The orchestra ghosts looked at him for approval and with a quick nod, they set aside their instruments near the piano and began helping the other ghosts. The toads watched as they went to work before a shadow came over them.

They all huddled together as he spoke, "I believe I’ve missed a key details about what happened here. Mind bringing me up to speed."

It wasn’t a question.


	6. Chapter 6

"Which brings me into my next point. Who destroyed the hotel. Have any of you heard the name King Boo before?"

Recognition flashed across all of their faces but once again, MacFrights gave the most explosive reaction. "Boo?! Those fiendish devils!" He hissed. "They’re the pests of the ghost world I tell you! Tricksters, the lot of them." Seeing their alarmed expressions, he huffed before calmly clarifying, "While I don’t know of any King, one particular obnoxious Boo did their best to cause havoc on my floor. Possessing armor, swinging weapons, the usual tricks of their kind. That’s not to say it wasn’t unpleasant when several spears skewered me. Corporeal or not...it brings up bad memories." He fell silent at that and no one had the nerve to ask for an explanation. It wasn’t their business. 

Despite this, the topic of Boos remained. "There was also a Boo on my floor." Kruller raised his hand. "They kept trashing the stores and since the workers were acting strange, I had to reorganize them by myself. Of course, that just gave them the opportunity to jump scare me." Shivers ran down his back as he recalled the memory.

"One kept opening the freezer!" Soulffle exclaimed.

Chambrea nodded. "And I do recall several of my staff reporting wrecked rooms." She looked towards the ghost hunter. "So it’s clear Boos are mischievous people but would their supposed King really do this? What would they have against us?"

E.Gadd shrugged. "It’s nothing against you Miss Chambrea or your coworkers. You all were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. This has to do with Luigi's and my previous encounters with the so called monarch. We've spoiled his revenge plots and world domination plans twice before. He’s formed a bit of a grudge, you see." He gestured towards the hotel ruins. "This was simply the result of the final battle between him and Luigi."

"Heh." MacFrights looked at the wreckage with renewed curiosity. "A single Boo managed to do this? Color me surprised."

"I did say King Boo, didn’t I? He’s much bigger than ordinary Boos. Honestly, it’s a curious thing that. Boos only get to his size by combining their forces into a singular entity. I wonder if he’s really—"

"E.Gadd."

"Oh, sorry Mario. Anyway, King Boo is significantly stronger than other Boos. He managed to destroy the hotel by enlarging a painting connected to the paranormal dimension over it. The vortex it created literally ripped the building off of its foundation. It was quite the impressive—"

"E.Gadd."

"Yes! Back to the topic at hand, King Boo destroyed the hotel because he wanted revenge on us. Hellen Gravely just gave him the opportunity to do it."

"And what was her reasoning."

"Well, I don’t—"

Mario interrupted, "She said she was his number one fan..." Their confused expressions spurred him on. "She was monologuing about it before I was trapped in the painting."

"Number one fan..." Soulffle sounded out the words slowly. "She just wanted to impress him. Really?"

Mario nodded and for once, no one had more to say. Even MacFrights, who had been the most vocal since his release, was silent. This whole miserable night was started over a crush. There wasn’t much that could be said about that.

Luckily, the silence didn’t last for long.

"Warning! Warning! Subject 030 Containment Field Malfunction! Error 028! Error 028!"

As Dr. Potter flew out of the GCM, MacFrights could only roll his eyes.

After dusting himself off, the ghost finally saw the wreckage of the hotel and gasped. "What—? Who could—? My poor plants!"

His tearful cries attracted several Mini Goobs and a Trapper, who all did their best to comfort the botanist. Once he stopped crying, he finally acknowledged their presence but his eyes focused in on one particular individual. His tearful gaze quickly soured and despite his older appearance, he practically tackled Gooigi and began strangling it. 

"Not only did you separate me from my babies but you crashed a whole building on top of them! Do you hate plants that much?" His grip tightened. "Answer me?!" 

Gooigi, having no vocal chords, didn’t say anything but luckily, Chambrea spoke up for it, "Dr. Potter, sir. That’s not the ghost hunter." 

"What—?! Oh." After noticing the slightly greener tone Gooigi had over Luigi, Dr. Potter quickly released him. "My apologies, though, you can’t blame me too much." Gooigi only stared back at him. "Doesn’t say much, does he." She shook her head. "Well then...Miss Chambrea. Do you mind clarifying what exactly happened here? I feel as if I've..." He noticed the others staring at him. "...missed something."

MacFrights scoffed. "Is this what you’ve been dealing with the whole time? Explaining the situation over and over again. What a pain."

E.Gadd brightened at that. "Well, it wasn’t our original plan but I think it’s worked out so far." This got him several raised brows so he clarified, "Luigi and I were planning on getting your side of the story before the GCM malfunctioned and started randomly releasing you. I’ll admit, we panicked initially but besides a few hiccups, I believe we have succeeded on gathering all the pieces."

Soulffle perked up. "Meaning?"

"Meaning, I have decided that this was all a misunderstanding. It’s clear now that you were all tricked into attacking us and that under better circumstances, none of this would’ve ever happened. As a result, I can safely say that you’re all free to go."

"Are you saying..?" 

"You’re not going to trap us in paintings."

E.Gadd frowned. "No, I’m not and for the last time, they’re not that bad. King Boo's versions of the things are cheap knockoffs. Mine are considerably roomier and there’s no danger—"

"E.Gadd—"

"Ah, Mario! Yes, you can explain the difference perfectly. You’ve been in both types so—" He paused. "...Never mind. No, I will not put you in paintings. You’re perfectly free to wander as long as you don’t cause mischief. As the number one and only ghost researcher, I’m responsible for making sure the paranormal don’t overstep certain boundaries. You all understand, don’t you?"

All of them shrugged in agreement except MacFrights whose expression only soured. "I’ll have you know my so called mischief is for the greater good." His scowl deepened...Stinking several-great-grandkids...wasting their land...

E.Gadd nodded. "As long as no one reasonably thinks otherwise, sure. Of course, you’re all welcome to stay here during and after reconstruction. I’m sure the rest of the staff would be happy to have you."

"Reconstruction?" Krueller's eyes widened. "You’re planning to rebuild the place?"

"We are already. I have the blueprints with me if you’d like to see them." 

As he unfolded the prints, they all crowded around him. 

"Have you increased the number of suites?"

"Any particular plants you’re thinking about?"

"Where’s the kitchen?"

"Is there a gift shop?"

"Yes. Not yet. Still on the second floor. Yes." As he answered all of their questions, he felt his grin widen. 

A ghost hotel. Who would’ve thought he’d find a place like this? While Evershade Valley was a paranormal marvel and a research hotspot, the Last Resort was alive! Like the original mansion, the hotel housed multiple Living Dead but instead of simply inhabiting it, these ghosts lived in it. It was their workplace. They didn’t meander about. No! They did their jobs as if they were still alive. The hotel gave them purpose. The Last Resort could’ve been mistaken as a perfectly normal hotel if it wasn’t for the staff. And while that was its own feat, it also opened many doors for his research.

He wasn’t going to say that out loud of course.

"E.Gadd, can I have a word with you?" 

Shaken from his thoughts, E.Gadd enthusiastically answered, "Sure, Mario. What do you want to say?"

As their gazes shifted towards him, Mario steeled himself before asking, "How exactly do you plan to release all the ghosts?"

E.Gadd smiled. What an easy question. "While there isn’t an exact button for it—" That would be a horrible idea—"I do know a way to do it manually."

"Okay and are you sure you...want to do it so abruptly?"

"Well, I—" He paused. "Mind clarifying?"

Mario took a deep breath before answering calmly, "Well, judging from the previous releases, don’t you think they might overreact."

Chambrea looked like she was about to counteract his statement but her gaze slowly shifted towards the newcomer. Dr. Potter was not oblivious to their stares but he remained silent. He did have a point after all.

"Now that you mention it...Maybe, we should release them individually."

"And explain the situation individually too?" MacFrights laughed. "Yeah, like that won’t take forever."

"What would you suggest then your highness," Soulffle spat.

"It’s your majesty and as a master strategist, I would recommend cornering them. That way you could explain to them what’s going on all at once."

"But sir, wouldn’t they just feel more aggressive if you did that? When the ghost hunter cornered me in my office, the first thing I did was panic."

"And I ate someone's luggage. We can’t just corner them like animals then."

"But then, they could still lash out when you release them. At least if you trap them, you know what to expect."

As they continued to argue, Mario carefully considered what they had to account for. One, they had to release the ghosts. They had enough evidence to believe that the ghosts were tricked into attacking them which meant releasing them was the right thing to do. Two, they needed to ensure their own safety. While the ghosts weren’t inherently dangerous, the musician and the botanist had shown that they were somewhat privy to vengeance. And three, they needed to explain the situation. 

With all this in mind, things were already looking difficult. Releasing them all at once was the best way to sort out the misunderstanding but it also meant they would be face to face with a horde of probably vengeful ghosts. Releasing them one by one wasn’t a bad option and technically, they were already doing that. But as MacFrights had said, continuing in that direction would be somewhat tedious. 

As for point number two, solving the first and third issue would probably solve it. There had to be a way to somehow get the ghosts in one location and keep them calm simultaneously. But maybe he was thinking about this all wrong. MacFrights had been right. Releasing them all and keeping them simultaneously contained was practically trapping them. 

Trapping them...

Trap.

What a negative connotation. Maybe that was the problem. 

Mario felt himself flinch. They needed to approach the situation differently. After all, a trap only worked with the right bait. The right setting. Loathe as he was to admit it, he had been trapped before. The promise of a mansion. The promise of a vacation. He supposed he might as well suggest it.

"Excuse me. I have an idea. How about we..." He sighed. He was going to regret this later. "...Trick them into remaining calm. E.Gadd and I will remain hidden while you guys explain the whole story. As your coworkers, I figured that they would be more comfortable around you guys."

Krueller shook his head. "But how would you release them? You probably won’t have enough time to run for shelter before they all notice you?"

E.Gadd intercepted the reply, "Gooigi is excellent at following directions. I’ll have him manually release the ghosts and stay hidden inside the machine." 

"How about the wreckage? I’m sure you can tell from my reaction that seeing the hotel like this...didn’t exactly put me in a good mindset. They might assume the worst."

Mario frowned. "We could try to hide it or move the GCM away from here."

"And risk damaging it even more? No sirree. If we break it while moving it, we just might end up releasing the ghosts all at once. Kinda ruins the plan, doesn’t it?"

"Then we hide it—"

MacFrights laughed. "Good luck with that! What are you going to do? Throw a tarp over it."

"Hey!" Chambrea glared at him. "This is a discussion. I won’t have your cynicism shut down any ideas."

He scoffed. "Please tell me your not serious."

"I'm very serious when I want to be," she cooly replied.

MacFrights met her gaze. "Hmph. Fine then. May I give my case then?" She nodded and he continued, "The plan isn’t bad. It’s just not well thought out...A tarp is a terrible idea but not unfeasible. A tarp would hide the problem. I simply recommend we get rid of it."

"Not possible. Construction has hardly begun—"

"Not what I meant." He clarified, "Obviously, we can’t remove the wreckage but we can make it look like it doesn’t exist."

"Isn’t that the same as hiding—"

The professor brightened "Oh! I see what you’re getting at!"

"E.Gadd?"

"Illusions Mario. With illusions we can make it seem like none of this happened. We won’t have to worry about hiding the wreckage because it wouldn’t exist at all in their minds."

"Exactly." MacFrights snapped. "That’s the idea but it would either require a lot of energy or an expert in the craft. I can say with confidence that I have and am neither in this moment..."

Soulffle nodded. "Same. That tumble took a lot out of me."

"Tumble?"

"The vortex you mentioned..." Chambrea chuckled. "Let’s just say the foundation wasn’t the only thing lifted up."

"The GCM!" E.Gadd paled. "That’s how it was damaged!"

MacFrights instinctively straightened. "Yes, I suppose it was. Along with everyone who was inside it. My stamina is still recovering. As I imagine it is for everyone else?" The tired expressions on each of their faces said enough. "How about illusions then? Anyone particular good in that practice?" They all shook their heads. "Well there goes that plan!"

"Not quite." E.Gadd gestured towards the machine. "I might be able to control who the machine throws out next. Anyone who's particular good at illusions in there?"

"The triplets are experts but convincing all three of them to help out might be a hassle." Chambrea shivered. "They’re also quite the tricksters...Miss Serpci might be able to cover the wreckage in sand but that might be too obvious."

"If we’re changing the plan to that, I could probably use my plants to cover the hotel."

MacFrights crossed his arms. "Really? And would you allow us to remove them when all was said and finished."

"No but—"

"I thought so. Now, stay on topic! Anyone else that comes to mind."

"Captain Fishook might work. He always disrupted my kitchen with fog whenever he came in."

"Yeah right. He’s a pirate for Pete’s sake! Tell me how’d you’d convince him first and then we’ll talk."

"Well, you aren’t giving any suggestions!"

"I don’t know anyone! I only arrived ten days ago—"

"And yet, you’re acting like you own the place!"

"Don’t you start with me you lousy excuse for a cook!"

"Guys, weren’t we supposed to be—"

"Shut up!" They both yelled.

"Hey! What did he do to you?!"

"Nothing but I don’t care right now."

As they devolved into more arguing, Mario finally felt exhaustion weighing down on him. Being stuck in a painting had done nothing for his sleep schedule and while being out of it did help, it wasn’t enough to keep him grounded. He needed someone to talk to. Someone who wasn’t a ghost or researching them. One particular person immediately came to mind.

"E.Gadd, I’m going...I’m gonna find Peach. I just can’t right now." Before the scientist could say anything, he was already walking away. He was just...too tired to care right now.

E.Gadd watched at he left and while he felt somewhat inclined to stop him, he decided not to. Not everyone could deal with ghosts constantly. Their undead natures let them be somewhat inclined to drifting off topic. Their varied emotions and hardy stamina also dissuaded polite conversation. He had gained an immunity to their quirks but only after a long time.

After all, he was the number one ghost hunter and the ONLY one. There had been a reason for that.

As he considered how to steer them back onto the topic, the GCM began shaking violently. Their attention immediately turned towards the machine and as the dust settled, the newest arrival looked around hesitantly. As his gaze fell onto the fallen hotel, he raised a brow.

"That’s an interesting sight to see." He turned back to them and smiled. "So, what have you guys been up to?"

MacFrights abruptly keeled over laughing. "There’s your solution Professor! Hahahaha! How did we forget about this loon?"

"Loon? I’ll admit that some of my films may be a little out there but they’re not at all loony."

E.Gadd cautiously approached the newcomer. "You’re the director ghost, right? Morty, I believe?"

Morty brightened up. "Ah! So you’ve heard of me? Brilliant! Any particular film of mine you’ve seen? Oh, I’ve actually finished production on another film. I’m not sure where it landed here but it’s casing should’ve protected it. If I find it, would you like to see it? Of course, I’ll premier it to everyone else if they’re interested."

E.Gadd was taken aback. While he had heard of Luigi's encounter with the ghost, he didn’t know he was this talkative. 

"Well, I actually would like to ask you about some things—"

"Oh! Ask away then. I’m always free for questions. At Paranormal Productions there is no schedule given the...well you get it."

"Yes, I suppose I do." He caught his breath."Are you particularly good at illusions?"

"Illusions?" Morty took a few seconds before snapping his fingers. "You mean special effects! Yes, I’m particularly an expert in the field. Both fields really, though, I only learned the normal after my death. They didn’t have CGI in my time, you see."

"Really? Would you be able to make it seem like the hotel was still here? I mean I imagine it would be a difficult—"

"Absolutely!..For the most part." He blushed. "I would have to keep the time the same, some of the setting too, but with the right equipment, it’s feasible. I imagine you want an exact replica, correct?"

"Yes but this is metaphorically-"

He interrupted, "Oh no, not at all. Although I don’t have an exact grasp of the situation, I’m willing to put that aside for some movie magic. Besides, I see that one of my star actors is here so I might as well help out."

Chambrea chuckled. "Oh, that’s not Luigi I’m afraid."

"I know. That’s Gooigi. Now, if you’d excuse me, I need to gather my crew. Finding an undamaged camera shouldn’t take too long."

As he floated off towards the ruins, they all watched as the other ghosts began following after him. 

When he left their sight, E.Gadd took a deep breath and sighed. "Quite an energetic fellow isn’t he?"

"You don’t know half of it."

None of the ghosts decided to clarify Dr. Potter's statement and soon enough, Morty returned with a working camera. 

It seemed like everything was finally working out.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also known as Steward's no good, very bad day.

This was a bad idea. 

Wait, no...

It was a horrible idea. A horrible, no good idea that would not only backfire on them immediately but end in all of them trapped in miserable stuffy paintings. Or at least, he thought they were stuffy. He had never talked to anyone that was once trapped in a painting before so he had no reference for how they really were. Oh right! That was because anyone who got stuck in a painting never usually got out! So not only would they be trapped in miserable stuffy paintings, they would be trapped in them forever! 

Speaking of stuffy...As he readjusted the stupid mask, he recalled his boss's whole plan. And immediately stopped as he recalled the first step: invite the ghost hunter to the hotel...

A Ghost Hunter! And not just any upstart, the number one and only ghost expert, Professor Elvin Gadd! He personally didn’t know a lot about the scientist but from what he heard from the occasional rumor or voice on the wind, he was armed and dangerous. 

The dreaded Poltergust immediately came to mind. Supposedly, the invention had sprung up a few years back and while no one initially knew who was behind it, ghosts had began to mysteriously vanish across the world. He hadn’t worried about it at the time since the Last Resort had been abandoned for about three decades, but the fact ghosts were just disappearing had spooked him. They were ghosts for Pete's sake! They weren’t especially known for dropping off the face of the earth or at least, not for a second time. Eventually, the disappearances started winding down but news did pick up on the person responsible.

This person and supposed ghost expert was Professor Elvin Gadd, known informally as E. Gadd.

E. Gadd terrified him.

E. Gadd was coming to the hotel.

Correction.

They had invited him to the hotel!

Sure, it was a trap but traps could easily backfire and he really didn’t want to get stuck in a painting. But his boss had insisted that everything would turn out fine. 

His boss, Hellen Gravely. 

While the Last Resort had only come under her management recently, she had taken to the job like a duck to water. A duck who established strict working hours, distributed fair wages, and hired many new workers all while looking into her own ghostly status. The latter of which had been particularly interesting. 

Even as a ghost, he had never really thought about his undead status. He was alive, he had died, and now, he was a ghost. It was as simple as that. Sure, not everyone who died became a ghost but he didn’t care. He was a ghost. Woo.

To say the least, Hellen Gravely didn’t share the same sentiments. She was alive, she had died, and now, she was a ghost. 

What exactly did that mean? 

How she could she use this to her advantage?

Hellen Gravely had ambition. He simply didn’t. A simple bell hop couldn’t do much after all...

Regardless, like E. Gadd, Miss Gravely had an expressed interest in all things Ghost and since there were no books on the subject, everything she came to learn had been by her own research and experiments. This was how she learned of King Boo and after hearing about his many exploits, this was how she came to admire him. 

When the Last Resort fell under her management, he had initially asked why she decided to take on the ruined hotel. She replied saying she had been inspired by her idol to take up the business venture. A venture that would revitalize the hotel. In a way, he was thankful for King Boo. Without him, the Last Resort would’ve still been in ruins and he would’ve still been wandering aimlessly around the first floor. Despite the working hours, he could say with confidence he was happier now than before.

Now, though, he wasn’t sure how thankful he should be. Apparently, while trying to take revenge on E. Gadd for some reason or another, the king had gotten himself stuck in a painting...And then he got free!..And tried to take revenge again only to get captured again...

When Miss Gravely had heard about this, she was not happy. He hadn’t personally seen any of the damage caused by her rage induced violence but Chambrea had reported several calls for housekeeping in the pent house suite. From there, Miss Gravely had begun her own plan for revenge and for the release of her idol, King Boo.

And she was going to rope the entire hotel into it. 

'It's for our best interests,' she had said.

'We're hiring all these new people for the hotel,' she had said.

'This is the right thing to do,' she had said.

She had said a lot in the end. 

He really thought this was a terrible idea, though, there wasn’t much he could do about it now. Professor Elvin Gadd was arriving today and he was bringing King Boo with him. Out of all the ghosts at the hotel, he and the staff under him were the only ones aware of the plan. It was them wearing the stuffy masks. It was them putting on the friendly appearance of an alive group of hotel workers. 

When the front doors opened wide, he sighed. He hated his job.

As these bitter feelings settled, however, he finally took notice of their new guest. Professor Elvin Gadd. To be honest, he had expected something else. The terrifying ghost hunter who knew all their ghostly secrets and skills, who could easily trap them all in paintings was a short, frail looking old man. The way he kinda waddled was also hilarious but that was rude so he thought nothing more about it. Really, though? This is the guy who terrifies him? 'Is' being the key word here. While he wasn’t physically intimidated by the Professor, he knew the old guy was still capable of something. The Poltergust was no myth and while he didn’t seem to have it with him, he was still hyperaware that the guy had invented it. Professor Elvin Gadd was not to be underestimated! His glasses were comically looking, though.

"Excuse me."—Oh gosh, even his voice sounded squeaky—"I received an invitation from the owner of this establishment to stay at this hotel."

"Ah, yes!" he replied as enthusiastically as his mask suggested he was. "Professor Elvin Gadd. It is our pleasure to welcome you to The Last Resort."

He waved off the subtle compliment. "E. Gadd's just fine, really and besides, I am honored to be invited to such an illustrious establishment. Whoever's responsible for the paint job outside did a marvelous job."

The Last Resort's exterior hadn’t been renovated since its establishment. 

He laughed. "On behalf of the staff of The Last Resort, thank you for the compliment." Reaching over the desk, he handed their guest his temporary room key. "Would you like us to take your luggage to your room?"

E. Gadd nodded. "Oh yes! I would do it myself but my back's not what it used to be." 

As the rest of the lobby staff began placing his luggage on the nearby bellman cart, E. Gadd caught his attention again. "Excuse me. Do you know when the owner of the establishment would be ready to meet? I brought King Boo as she requested but I would like to see the ghost collection she mentioned in her letter."

If Steward was alive, he's sure he would’ve been sweating right now. Ghost collection? Did Miss Gravely really—?

"I must apologize for my late arrival." Her voice echoed throughout the lobby. 

Standing atop of the grand staircase, Hellen Gravely casted her gaze out onto the ground floor inspecting every inch of it before settling it on them. Instead of wearing a mask, she donned black framed, golden lensed glasses that hid the ghostly glow of her eyes. He still winced under their gaze, though.

"I had intended to greet you at the entrance but something came up. I hope Steward has been accommodating to your needs."

"Think nothing of it. All of the staff has been stellar! Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything else from such a wonderful establishment."

"Oh thank you!" She laughed. "We run a tight ship around here." Although he couldn’t see her eyes through her glasses, he felt them narrow on him. 

E. Gadd hummed, taking no notice of the rising tension, "It would seem so. Now, if you don’t mind me asking, may I see the ghost collection you mentioned? The variety of ghosts you described has spurred my interest in how you came across them all. It must be a story to tell."

"Oh it is!" she replied.

Promised living space and a decent job had gotten them all here. Excluding four exceptions technically.

"But would you mind if I see King Boo first. You have the machine containing him right outside, don’t you?" 

"Yes, though, how did you—"

"Great!" she interrupted. "Shall we?"

As she drifted down the stairs, E. Gadd took the hint and made his way back towards the entrance. When she passed him, she grabbed his arm and pulled him along with her.

"Come Steward. We have business to attend to."

He was starting to really hate his job.

Standing next to his car, E. Gadd was checking over a cylindrical machine. When he noticed their presence, he waved them over, "This is the Boo Canister that holds King Boo. I’m activating the viewing settings so we can see him."

"Really, how grand." Her smiled widened. "Tell me Professor. Is there any way he can escape it? I imagine you need a lot of power to contain him in such a small space."

"You’d be right about that. Compared to other Boos, King Boo definitely requires more energy to actively contain but since the Boo Canister is specifically designed to hold his species, adjusting its settings is no hassle."

"Really?" she cooed. "Can it only contain Boos then?"

"Well, I wouldn’t say that," he hummed. "Other types of ghosts have different abilities compared to Boos. Since the canister is specifically engineered to hold Boos, it might not have all the capabilities of handling skills they don’t have. Of course, containment wise, it should do well as a temporary storage unit."

"Different ghost types you say? Have you figured out a categorizing system for Ghosts?"

"I have!" he exclaimed. "It took a while to iron out the details but I’ve narrowed it down to nine main categories and several subcategories. In fact, recently I discovered the molecular construct for different ghosts is different from each other. I discovered this fact during my last research venture actually."

"Interesting! I would love to hear about it."

"And I would love to tell it."

As they continued bouncing of questions and answers, Steward considered what he should do next. Despite their plan, E. Gadd was a fountain of knowledge when it came to ghosts and was actually able to answer Miss Gravely's multitude of questions involving them. Maybe in different circumstances they could’ve gotten along. Of course, even now, he still noticed how Miss Gravely's focus never really left the Boo Canister. 

"Well, I would love to continue this discussion later but about..." She gestured towards the machine.

"Oh right!" After fiddling with canister's screen, it beeped and a fuzzy image appeared on screen before clearing up to reveal a Boo. "There he is. Angry fellow isn’t he?"

Angry was one way to put it. Despite there being no indication that they were looking at him, the Boo had seemed to notice their presence regardless. As he stared at them through the screen, Steward had enough sense to back away from the machine—

"There’s no release function, right?" 

"There’s no manual way to do it if that’s what you’re asking. There is a safety release for the Boos' sake in case the machine ever short—" 

Pulling her employee forward—Steward instinctively turned invisible—Hellen Gravely shoved him towards the Boo Canister—

Now, as a ghost, Steward was usually able to pass through objects easy peasy. The Boo Canister, however, was inherently designed to hold ghostly specters like Boos inside it so its components weren’t like normal physical objects. Particularly, the inner mechanism that actively prevented ghosts from escaping was not passable by normal ghostly means.

—which immediately short circuited. As his stamina took a nose dive, his vision faded in an out of existence. What he did catch between blinks was the white visage of a Boo. A very large and angry Boo. The small screen had done a disservice to portraying his actual size. As for the guest that had just arrived at the hotel, his room key landed some feet away from the hotel's entrance aglow by the light of a painting frame.

This was a terrible idea.   
__ __ ___ ___ __ __

That was a week ago. Being shocked hadn’t been fun but it was a new feeling. It was a sudden sort of constant pain but after a few days of leave—Miss Gravely hadn’t expected him to immediately return to work after that—he was back to normal. 

What he was waking up to now was a familiar pain. It wasn’t a one and done experience like momentary electrocution. No. It was a phantom pain that he was extensively familiar with. A suffocating feeling. A suffocating place. Small. Cramped. Compact. Like a coffin but less.

As a ghost, getting crushed by luggage wasn’t a big deal and it could happen multiple times.

The same did not apply to the living.

Luckily, just before the taboo memory could overwhelm him—despite the fact he was already 'hyperventilating'—he heard what sounded like a voice. Muffled as it was, he could tell it was steadily approaching where he was.

As it got closer, it became clearer. "This was where...left them?.." A nonsensical reply. "I...Looks...a fight...Where...think they are now?" 

It was clearer now. Familiar too. 

It was one of the ghost hunter’s friends! 

Hopefully, she wouldn’t find him—"Oh hello Polterpup. Do you know where Luigi is? Hm? What about the luggage?"—Oh no!

As the lid opened up, Steward wished he was actually dead at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will not apologize.

**Author's Note:**

> So while I was always going to probably write this, I had a lovely conversation that helped me lab out the characters featured here. 
> 
> Here’s the Thread: https://archiveofourown.org/comments/260756947
> 
> And thank you Tawogfan2000 and BurningFox6 for helping me out.


End file.
